A Conversation With NMPA Hall Of Fame Writer Tom Higgins

Tom Higgins has covered NASCAR and other sports for over 40 years. He wrote for the Charlotte Observer from 1964-1997. He received NASCARs Award of Excellence in 1996 and won the National Motorsports Press Associations George Cunningham Award in 1987. He will be inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame on Jan. 22 along with noted crew chief and engine builder Waddell Wilson and driver Dale Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.
Higgins is still writing and recently reflected on his career.

Congratulations on your election to NMPA Hall of Fame. Any thoughts on receiving this honor?

Im very humbled, flattered and surprised to have been elected. Other than the birth of my children, thats the greatest honor that has ever happened to me.
The NMPA goes back to the late 50s, early 60s so its a very long running motorsports press association. It was originally known as the Southern Motorsports Press Association. Sometime in the 70s, as NASCAR was going national and more and more people from across the country were covering it, they decided to change the name to NMPA. There have been some very terrific media people who have led the group.

Youve obviously worked with a lot of them over the years?

Ive worked with practically all of them. One of the founders was Hank Schoolfield who was my sports editor the 4 1/2 5 years I was at the Winston-Salem Journal. He was a terrific copy editor. He was the best man in my first wedding and a very literate guy. He got me out of using clichs and taught me an awful lot about writing.
Hank was one of the cofounders along with a terrific radio man named Bob Montgomery. Both are now deceased. And Benny Phillips from High Point, N.C., contributed a lot as a long time president as did Steve Waid, my best friend.

You were born in Burnsville, N.C., and grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains?

My birthday is Aug. 9, 1937. Im 73 years old. I was born right in the living room of my parents house. There was no hospital in the county. Had a country doctor come deliver me.

Did your parents influence you a lot regarding your career and interests?

My parents were Milton Pappy Higgins, a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission game warden, and Pearl Swofford Higgins, a school teacher. My mother read to me a lot when I was young and later on she was determined that I go to college.
My father encouraged me to become an outdoorsman and conservationist. He was a strong conservationist and wanted the water and air to be clean. He wanted the critters to be protected from poachers and he did his damndest to do that. He put a lot of people in jail for poaching.
A lot of my friends were joining the service in the mid-50s because there was no work in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I was nominated to the first Air Force Academy class in 1955. I went to the old Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, S.C., for the physical and failed to pass because you had to be able to cross your eyes and I couldnt, probably traceable to getting hit in the right eye by a batter while catching a high school baseball game.

You played basketball and baseball in high school. Did you know you wanted to get into sports writing as a career while in college and who were some journalists who influenced you?

I played both of those also for Brevard College in 56-57. I was the shortest center in the Western Carolinas Junior College Conference at that time. My first dream was to be a major league baseball player. But I saw that wasnt going to happen. I couldnt solve the aerodynamics of a curve ball.
And my other aspiration was always to be a sportswriter. Hank Schoolfield; Mal Mallette, a former pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers and sports editor at the Asheville Citizen-Times; Bob Terrell who was also sports editor in Asheville; and Al Geremonte, who was sports editor of the Asheville Times, influenced me.
On the national scale I loved to read Oscar Fraley from UPI. He was a terrific writer who tinged a lot of his columns with sarcasm and I loved that. Fraley wrote the book, The Untouchables, which led to the TV series.

What were the various media outlets you worked for over the years?

I started at the Asheville Citizen-Times in late August of 57 and I stayed until sometime in the winter of 58. I went to the Winston-Salem Journal and I stayed there until March of 62. Then I went down to the Durham Morning Herald for nine months and got in a bad situation down there.
I went back to Burnsville and ran my own hometown weekly in 63. I leased the paper. I was the editor, publisher and ad salesman did everything by myself. I had an old ancient press that would print two pages at a time and was hand-fed. It stayed broke all the time doing it. That was a very rustic operation and I didnt make any money but I had a good time doing it. I saw it wasnt gonna work so I knew I had to get back into daily newspapers.
I sent resumes all around and luckily was hired by the Charlotte Observer about mid-January of 64. My first day at the Observer was Jan. 31, 1964. I stayed until Jan. 31, 1997.

You werent intending to cover racing at first. Can you talk about how that came about?

I never had seen a race. I didnt care a thing about it. My buddies would go to Asheville- Weaverville Speedway in the 50s when we were in high school. It was still a half-mile dirt track then and they would go to see the two Grand National 500 lappers they had a year there 250 mile races. They would come home and it would take the bath water a week to quit running red. They were covered in dust.
I played baseball in summer leagues so I didnt go to the races. I covered the first race I ever saw September of 1957 at Asheville-Weaverville. And thank goodness it had been paved by then. Lee Petty won the race. I went back there in May of 1958 for another 250-miler and Rex White won.
One of the races I remember most was run on July 12 of 58 at a baseball park at Asheville, McCormick Field. The Tri-State folded so Asheville didnt have a minor league team any more. A guy named Jim Lowe from North Wilkesboro leased the baseball facility from the city and paved a quarter- mile track around the perimeter and they ran mostly weekly, a Sportsman Division then. They had some jalopy races too, preliminaries.
But they brought the NASCAR convertible division there in late 56 and again in spring of 57. Curtis Turner, who was even then a legend, won both those convertible races. The convertible division was an off-shoot of the Grand Nationals. They had some great drivers in that. Turner. Bob Welborn. Glenn Wood.
And then the Grand Nationals came there on July 12 of 58 and ran a show and it was incredible. Lee Petty crashed into the first base dugout after he and Cotton Owens collided at home plate. The car caught fire but they got the thing out of the dugout and repaired it and he finished fourth. Jim Paschal started from the pole and led every lap. Cotton Owens finished second and Rex White was third.

But you knew right away when you went to the first race that you liked the sport?

I loved it. The cast of characters. The color. The action. It just all appealed to me. I said, What in the world have you been missing?
At one of those races, in 57 I think, I went onto this wood-framed tower at the start-finish line and on the infield side of the track and I was alone on the very top level with two guys I thought I should have known. Their faces looked very familiar.
I knew they were drivers because they had helmets curled up in their arms. They wore slacks and sports shirts, which most drivers wore in those days.
But they were passing a bottle of Jim Beam back and forth drinking straight out of it. Finally it hit me that it was Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly. They didnt race that day but they were there in case someone would offer them a ride. They were chug luggin that hooch. Im surprised as good as they were, no one offered them a car that day. But I said, Man this is a hairy-chested bunch. I think Im gonna like this.
The first big race I covered was the 58 Southern 500 at Darlington. And God, what a spectacle. It was extremely hot, probably 105 degrees that Labor Day. And they were still using treaded tires. That track temperature had to be 150 degrees or higher and they were popping tires. It just sounded like cannons were going off.
They usually blew them in what was right before the first turn, which is now turn three. The ramshackle old press box was located in turn one. It amounted to a chicken house on stilts. It was an open press box. All they had, all that was protecting you from the track, was rusted chicken wire. Thats the absolute truth. And its a wonder there wasnt a disaster down there.
In later years there almost was. A guy from out in the Midwest named Earl Balmer almost went into the press box, got on top of the wall. But in that 58 race, they hit the first turn wall so much. Two Californians, Eddie Gray and Eddie Pagan of Hutchinson-Pagan fame, both got on top of the steel rail and tore up a bunch of the support posts and they kept yellow-flagging the race trying to put them back in and didnt do a very good job of it.
Finally, Jack Smith blew going full-bore into turn one and went right through the fence and out of the track. That finished tearing the railing away. About 150 feet of the railing was gone. Nowadays they would stop the race. But NASCAR kept going and told the drivers to go low and slow through turn one. They mostly did except Fireball Roberts who was driving a 57 Chevrolet which I think is the prettiest American car ever made and he maintained the same smooth steady pace the whole race. He wound up winning by five laps. And Darlingtons been my very, very favorite track from that day forward.

What did you cover when you started with the Charlotte Observer?

I was hired as an outdoor writer. I covered hunting and fishing. The Observers motorsports writer at the time was a guy named George Cunningham. I came to the Observer on Jan. 31, 1964 and George Cunningham left the paper in 65 to become the first P.R. director at the new North Carolina Motor Speedway.
So great old sports editor Whitey Kelly told me, Tom, you are the only redneck on the staff so you are going to cover racing until we can hire somebody. So I covered it for about a year until they hired a fine guy named Bob Moore. And Bob was there about two years before he was called back into service on account of the Vietnam War. So I covered it again while he was gone.
He came back from the military and was at the paper until about the mid-1970s. Thats not long after Winston got into NASCAR as series sponsor and they hired Bob to do their public relations in the press department. Thats when I took over the beat. Was full-time at about 75 or 76. I started covering every single race in either 79 or 80.

Can you tell todays kids and everyone who uses the latest technology Facebook, Twitter, etc. what it was like to get a story you did at the track to press?

In 1958 at Darlington they provided typewriters for you. They had Royal typewriters. Out there in that open press box you typed your paper on copy paper, rolled it up with a rubber band and dropped it down in what amounted to a rain spout into a little space the size of a small closet in your house.
There were two lady Western Union operators sitting down there and they transmitted the stories to Atlanta, which in turn transmitted them to the newspapers. They were sent to the newspapers on Western Union type of sheets of paper with the sentences pasted on. And instead of periods they used stop.
Well, back in those days there were a lot of linotype operators at newspapers who had an uncommon taste for alcohol and the stories didnt get heavily edited. And you saw the word stop even in football stories transmitted on Western Union. They didnt bother to put the period in. It was rustic.
I thought about how far wed come from 58 to 88 when I went to Australia to cover the NASCAR race over at the Thunderdome near Melbourne. With a touch of an index finger to a computer key you could transmit a story half way around the world in a blink of a second. I thought back a lot of times to 1958 at Darlington.

What are the main differences you see between the news today and back then?

Well, nowadays you got statistics instantaneously available. After the race, even during the race. And back then it was all done by hand. They might have had a calculator but I doubt it. It was good old-fashioned rithmatic. Sometimes it was hours after the race until you got the official rundown. But there were so many more characters back then.

Is there anything you would say to media, drivers, etc. today to get along and do good stories?

With the money these guys are making today they ought to be thankful and give more of their time to the press and to the fans. Some of them do but I feel a majority dont. I remember what I call the golden years of stock car racing from the mid-60s to the mid-80s. You did not have to make an appointment to talk to a driver or crew chief. We were smart enough press guys back then to see when they werent busy and we could just walk up to them in the garage area and explain that we needed some information and do a quick interview. And almost to a man they were happy to do it.
I knew it was time for me to retire when a wet-behind-the-ears rep for one top driver told me I could have five minutes with the driver and ask three questions. And I told him I could write it without him. And I did.
A few months later I took early retirement. All these guys are becoming multi-millionaires today with their private jets and million-dollar motor homes. Talk to a couple of pioneers about when they started racing. They were the guys who made it possible for todays drivers. Many of these guys slept in their trucks on army cots and drove hundreds of miles through the night to race three or four times a week.

You write now doing the weekly Scuffs blog for Thatsracin.com, articles on fishing and the outdoors for the Observer and articles for Motorsportsunplugged.com. You wrote most of the special collectors Thats Racin Hall of Fame edition in 2010. How did you decide what to include in there?

I did 90 percent of that publication. I talked it over with the editors and they didnt want just straight-forward biographies on the guys. We decided to pick out one attribute that each driver had and build the stories around that.
For Richard Petty, not much has ever been written, that I know of, of how tough a man he is. How often hes raced very, very hurt. So we centered the story on that. Like when he won the Daytona 500 in 1978 within just weeks after losing half his stomach to an ulcer. And the doctor said not to even go to Daytona much less race. And Richard told him Im goin and theres nothing you can do to stop me. And he did go and he did race and he did win.
And for Junior Johnson, of course, people knew this about him all along that he absolutely charged no matter what the situation. He was ahead at Martinsville once, ahead by five laps, and they kept imploring him to slow down. His team owner, who was one of the founders of Holly Farms Poultry, got so mad that he was shaking a sledgehammer at Junior during a pit stop. And Junior just gave him the thumbs up which made him even madder.
As far as Dale Earnhardt, it was his absolute determination and willingness to succeed. He went through some very tough times as a young driver. But he sure ended up in the black.

Waddell Wilson and Dale Jarrett are also being inducted into this years NMPA Hall of Fame. Do you have any special memories about them over the years?

I can tell you a lot about Waddell. Its a small world situation with Waddell and me. We grew up only about 15 miles apart and we were in Boy Scouts at the same time but different troops. We went to the same camporees and same courts of honor and I remember I was always tickled to death at a court of honor to get one merit badge. But we were all jealous of Waddell because he usually got five.
He was very smart guy and could do about anything in the outdoors or with machines or whatever. He and I also played high school basketball against each other. He for Bakersville and me for Burnsville. Both are very small towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I remember the last game of the regular season in 1955. Waddell and I had a little incident and I asked him why he hit me and he said Dang anyone that would be ahead by 22 points in the fourth quarter and leave the first team in
I told him that our coach was getting ready for the conference tournament. Well I didnt see him again. Our teams didnt play each other in the tournament. We won the conference championship that year.
I didnt see Waddell, didnt know what happened to him, for nine years. I came to work for the Charlotte Observer in 1964. I was walking through the garage area at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the fall race known as the National 400.
Someone grabbed me, spun me around. It was Waddell Wilson. I said, Dont hit me! and we both laughed and he said What are you doing in this garage area? I said, Well what are you doing here first? and he said, Im building engines for Holman-Moody. What are you doing here? I said, Well, Im going to be writing stories for the Charlotte Observer about you building engines for Holman-Moody. And weve been the closest of friends ever since.

And was it interesting to see Dale Jarrett and other father son duos achieve success?

I remember Dale as an excited young boy, probably 10 or so, when his dad won the Southern 500 at Darlington in 1965 by 14 laps, I think it was. Incredible race and one that they wanted to win so badly.
Seeing generation after generation racing is very fascinating. These kids that both through heredity and environment became terrific race car drivers. Like the combinations of Lee and Richard Petty and Buck and Buddy Baker, Bobby and Davey Allison, Ned and Dale Jarrett, Ralph and Dale Earnhardt. You remember the sons as kids when they followed their dads, and you wondered what success they were going to have. Some of the sons were more successful than the fathers

Who were some of the drivers who gave good interviews?

It is no contest. Buddy Baker and Neil Bonnet. They were quote machines. Ive never known a figure in the sport that right off the top of his head could come up with colorful analogies like Baker. Unreal.
Ramo Stott blew an engine while running near the back of the pack in a 60-car field (YES, 60!) on May 6, 1973 at Talladega. It happened on the 11th lap as leaders Buddy and Cale Yarborough came around. Buddy and Cale went into the wall almost in formation.
Buddy said it happened so suddenly It was like opening a closet door and having a tiger jump out on you. Neil Bonnet was the same way. And Dave Marcis. Were personal friends even away from the race track. We share a passion for fishing and Dave is just great to be aroundalways laughing. And Rusty Wallace is a terrific interview, very accommodating. In my estimation he was one of the best champions as far as rapport with the fans. He really enjoyed being champion.

Do you remember any really bizarre moments in your reporting?

There were lots of bizarre moments. Lee Petty crashing into the dugout in Asheville in 58. And I cant remember the year but when Buddy, Terry Labonte and Joe Ruttman crashed under yellow on what was then the backstretch at Darlington. It put them all out of the race and they were running really well.
I asked Terry what happened and he said, Darlington happened, the Lady in Black. It was like an invisible hand reached out from the wall and smacked us together. You really couldnt tell what had happened.
Of course 1979 at Daytona. Cale and Donnie Allison crashed and got out and fought and it included Bobby. Richard Petty came from behind to win. He was running third when they crashed.
I talked to Cale and Bobby the next morning as they departed Bill France, Jr.s office after being, lets say, chastised. I asked Bobby what had happened. He said, All I know is that all of a sudden I found Cale Yarboroughs nose pounding on the end of my fist.
There have been so many, strange things that have happened at Talladega that have been just so spooky, a lot of them very tragic. Bobby Allison almost going in the grandstand down there in the late 80s. Seems surreal. I can still see the car coming up so smoothly off the race track, turning backwards and flying into that fence. It was horrifying, couldnt imagine you were really seeing it.

You wrote the book with Steve Waid, Brave In Life on Junior Johnson. As far as books go, was that fun and what differences were there from writing articles?

Steve and I met probably in 76 or 77. We became friends almost instantaneously and very shortly became best friends. Writing the book was quite challenging. The publisher at first only wanted 32,500 words and he had an impossible deadline. So Steve and I divided different facets of Juniors life and career. We didnt have time to get together and go over it because the deadline was so unrealistic. And we told the publisher that there was no way you could tell Junior Johnsons story in that few of words.
So he said, Okay 50,000 max. We gave him 72,500 and still had to leave out some great anecdotes and facets of Juniors incredible life. I sat up nights and got up early. A lot of mornings I started typing at 5 a.m. and several times I told myself Youre crazy for agreeing to do this.
But it was incredible how Steve and I did; there was very little redundancy in what we wrote. We sent our copy in separately and they meshed it together. The publisher and editors are to be congratulated on that. Once the book came out it was very fulfilling. It went through six printings and Im very proud of that. Its funny that it doesnt print any more because there continues to be a demand for it. I wrote another book by myself called NASCARs 25 Greatest Races.

If you could name three top drivers of today in NASCAR who would they be?

Jimmie Johnson, of course. Kevin Harvick. And Kyle Busch, who a lot of people liken to the driving style of Junior Johnson and Curtis Turner. They took no prisoners.

Have you had a chance to talk to a lot of these current drivers, now that youre retired?

Ive chatted with Kevin Harvick. Never had a conversation with Jimmie or Kyle.

If there was someone today who has never been to a race, say short, dirt or NASCAR what would you maybe do, say to encourage them to try it to attend one?

You aint seen nothin yet. Go one time and youre hooked. Thats for most people. I know some people had gone and didnt like it but most do.